Every popular rebellion or revolution produces its equal and opposite reaction in counter-revolution. England’s national uprising against the EU was won and lost on 23 June 2016. No sooner had victory had been declared, than the Brexit counter revolution began. The Crown took control with May at the helm. She declared ‘Brexit means Brexit’. As Humpty Dumpty said to Alice, in Brexit wonderland a word “means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less”.Continue reading “BREXIT COUNTER-REVOLUTION”

Since the Brexit vote, the Tories, under Theresa May’s leadership, have been moving away from the recently shared politics of the majority of the British ruling class and mainstream British political parties. A central feature of these politics was based upon the globalised neo-liberal economics pushed by Margaret Thatcher, in the interests of a turbo-charged City of London. The City had really taken off after Nigel Lawson’s ‘Big Bang’ deregulation in 1983. Following New Labour’s 1996 election victory, they adopted the same unquestioning pro-City path. This was shown when Chancellor Gordon Brown abolished the few remaining government controls over the City’s operations. Under Tony Blair, Butskellism gave way to Blatcherism.Continue reading “WHICH WAY NOW – ‘BREXIT’ OR ‘EX-BRIT’?”

We are posting the following letter by Steve Freeman of the Left Unity Party and RISE which addresses some of the politics underlying Brexit.

LITTLE ENGLAND

The iconic picture of Trump with Farage reveals a certain truth about Brexit. Here we have a glimpse of reality, entirely absent from the Tory referendum. We can invent our own dialogue. Farage says: ‘Donald, I am handing you the UK on a plate.’ Trump, thumbs up, replies: ‘Thanks. I’ll take Scotland as my golf course, the NHS and more tax breaks for American multinationals. I want free trade deals to benefit America and no more wind farms.’Continue reading “LITTLE ENGLAND”

Tony Greenstein highlights the Zionist response in Israel, USA and the UK to the election of Donald Trump and his appointment of Steve Bannon, former head of the AltRight Breibart News, which has published anti-Semitic articles.

Steve Bannon and Donald Trump

A WELCOME FOR TRUMP AND BANNON

Jonathan Arkush: congratulated Trump on his win

It must have come as a shock to many young members of the Jewish Labour Movement when the president of the Board of Deputies, Jonathan Arkush, “publicly congratulated Donald Trump on his election win” (1). After all, these young things have grown up to believe that anti-Semitism is a leftwing phenomenon that exists in organisations like Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party, and 21 of them were among the 175 British Jewish signatories to a letter expressing their ‘deep concern’ at Arkush’s statement (2).Continue reading “ANTI-SEMITISM HAS NEVER BEEN A PROBLEM FOR ZIONISM”

“An even greater leap into fantasy land is the belief that Brexit will provide a progressive example to other member states wanting to break away from the EU…. The first and unfortunately well-known non-UK person to celebrate Brexit was none other than the Right populist US Presidential hopeful, Donald Trump. With typical crassness he chose his new golf course at Turnberry in Scotland to declare his solidarity with Brexit… Another presidential hopeful, Marine Le Pen, of the French Far Right National Front, was the first significant European politician to proclaim her solidarity with Brexit.Continue reading “FROM FARAGE’S BREXIT TO TRUMP’S “BREXIT PLUS, PLUS, PLUS”, AND ON TO ‘MADAME FREXIT’?”

We are posting this article from Socialist Democracy (Ireland) about the conspiracy between the Irish government and Apple to avoid paying taxation.

APPLE AND IRELAND – WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IT?

The details of the criminal conspiracy between Apple and the Irish government may be utterly shocking, as is the brazen defiance shown by Dublin and the computer giant in opposing the European ruling. We knew they paid little tax, but essentially zero? Who would have thought it?Continue reading “APPLE AND IRELAND – WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT IT?”

The Scottish Independence Convention (SIC) is to be relaunched in Glasgow on Sunday, September 18th. This body was first constituted on November 30th, 2005, on the initiative of the Scottish Socialist Party. The SNP gave its support, but then ensured that it was kept firmly at arm’s length whilst the party developed its own links with big business, and further accommodated to US and British imperial interests.

When the SNP leadership eventually launched its own front campaign, ‘Yes Scotland’, in Edinburgh on 25th May 2012, the SIC took no part in this decision. For the SNP, the main purpose of SIC had been to tie up the Left and to prevent a republican alternative from emerging – although the split that had occurred in the SSP certainly helped them in this endeavour.

Below we are republishing a pamphlet published in 2006 in response to the first SIC. This was produced by the RCN Platform in the SSP. The article anticipates some of the retreats the SNP went on to make to gain respectability, e.g. the climbdown over NATO.

Although today’s political situation is not the same as in 2005, there are still many things to be learned from this particular attempt to subordinate any independent class initiative to the political requirements of an SNP leadership, which represents the interests of a wannabe Scottish ruling class in the making.

Steve Freeman of the Republican Socialist Alliance, Left Unity and RISE gives his assessment of the state of the UK after the Chilcot Report.

THE UK AFTER CHILCOT

Pointing two fingers at the guilty

The UK is a conservative country where republicanism, the sovereign power of the people, exists in disguise. It is a love that dare not speak its name. The issue of sovereignty appears, for example, in the Labour Party in the contest between MPs and rank and file members over who can elect or remove the Labour leader or deselect local MPs. The coup against Corbyn is an attempt to overthrow the sovereignty of the members.Continue reading “THE UK AFTER CHILCOT”

As the conflict between the sectarian Iraqi state, backed by western imperialism, and the Sunni supremacist Daesh, clandestinely backed by powerful reactionary interests in the Gulf and elsewhere, focuses on Fallujah, the Iraqi Democratic Movement has issued the following statement.

Iraqi troops bombard Fallujah in latest offensive against Daesh

AN UPDATE ON IRAQ

These are dangerous and critical times for Iraq and the Iraqi people. The very existence of our country and the fate of its people are at risk. This is not an overstatement or radical rhetoric; our people and country are being torn apart by a multitude of threats and menaces. There is a severe political, social and economic crisis as well as the security threat of terrorism in the shape of Daesh (ISIS) and other armed groups. These are really desperate times for Iraq.Continue reading “STATEMENT FROM THE IRAQI DEMOCRATIC MOVEMENT”